Month: October 2014

A New York Times article from October 9, 2014 reports high satisfaction level from low-income people in three Southern states who use Medicaid. Respondents preferred Medicaid over private insurance. The study of residents of Arkansas, Kentucky, and Texas, found those surveyed preferred Medicaid compared with private coverage as the former offered better “quality of health care” and made them better able to “afford the health care” they needed. This is the same result reached by repeated surveys showing the program, much maligned as a political target as being substandard, is quite popular among the people who use it. A 2011 survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 86 percent of people who had received Medicaid benefits described the experience as somewhat or very positive. A slightly more recent Kaiser survey showed that 69 percent of Americans earning less than $40,000 a year rated the program important to them or their families. Medicaid’s political opponents would have you believe that its restricted list of doctors and additional red tape make it worse than being uninsured. But, other pollsters and surveys find Medicaid ranks higher on consumer satisfaction levels than private insurance.

Kaiser’s top pollster says the Medicaid is “surprisingly popular” and has seen the program get high marks from the public for more than 10 years. The public at large rates Medicaid highly as well, saying that Medicaid is important to them and their families. Now covering some 67 million Americans, Medicaid is not the country’s largest health insurance program. Moreover, a Majority of Americans support Medicaid expansion as part of the Affordable Care Act. In fact, it’s only when compared to Medicare that Medicaid looks unimpressive, stated Robert Blendon, a public health professor at Harvard University who studies public opinion on health care issues and was a co-author on the subject recent study.

The Harvard researchers said those surveyed gave private coverage the edge when it came to seeing “doctors you want, without having to wait too long” and “to have doctors treat you with care and respect.” But Medicaid surpassed private insurance on whether the available programs enabled respondents to “be able to afford the health care you need,” and on the overall question of “quality of health care.”

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